Review-O-Sphere

  From Here to Eternity~Frank Sinatra The war movie genre is one of the most legendary and long-standing of the film genres. And within that genre, World War II movies in particular seem like its own entire sub-genre. Partially because of all the wars in human history, it seems the easiest to distill into a battle of good versus evil, partially because the war was fought right as cinema was coming of age as its own media form. We’ve discussed numerous movies made during WWII previously in this series and how you didn’t get films that actually examined the more human side of a soldier dealing with war until 1944/45. After the war ended, cinema slowly changed gears to dealing with problems with postwar America though it wouldn’t be long before we started getting WWII-based movies again.           The first major movie made about World War II after the war ended was Battleground (1949) which stood out as the first war movie that showed soldiers actin...

  To see part 1, click here . Broadway Melody Ballet~Gene Kelly and the MGM Orchestra - Singin' in the Rain The 25th Academy Awards marked the quarter-century anniversary of this ceremony so they decided to provide a couple updates to adapt to changing times. This was the first ceremony to be broadcast on television as well as the first ceremony to be held in New York City and Hollywood simultaneously, a trend that would continue until 1957. How do you host an Academy Awards ceremony on opposite sides of the country simultaneously? It was done using the television to bridge the gap between the parties in the editing booth. The master of ceremonies would speak to the audience directly and then, depending on the award, they would cut to either the New York arena where the host (Fredric March this year) would read off the nominees and winners or cut to the LA arena where that city’s host (Bob Hope) would do the same. Credit where it’s due, this is a pretty innovative way to embrac...